Telecom company has poor results

Alphyra announced that profit [EBITDA] for the eight months to the end of December, 2001 was € 0.4 million compared to € 7.5m for the twelve month to April 2001.

Group turnover for the 8 months to 31st December, 2001 was analysed as follows:

Electronic Transaction Group €27m [12 months to April 2001 €24m]. Voice and Data Group € 28 million [ 12 months ended April 2001 €64m]. The company said that the fall in turnover was directly attributable to the poor performance returned by the Voice and Data businesses due to the general downturn. Of this part of Alphyra's business only the payphones business remains, following the disposal of the Telecommunications and Computers businesses. The company sold this part of the business in December, 2001 to Calyx and Calyx Computers Ltd for a consideration of €12m.

Alphyra said that the performance of the electronic transaction business continues to improve as the business matures. There has been particular growth of the business in Sweden and the Netherlands.

In regard to profits there was a significant downturn in the telecommunications and computers business and the company's Voice and Data division recorded a very much reduced profit.

The only sector of the Electronic Transactions Division which reported a profit was the Irish and UK divisions. Mainland Europe operations returned losses mainly due to investment in new markets

The company is confident of growth " As a results of focusing our talent and resources we are now driving profitable and sustainable growth in the delivery of the transaction business model in our established markets of Ireland and the UK. We have successfully completed our pilot project with E-Plus in Germany and are well underway with a similar pilot for SFR in France. We are confident that these markets will prove successful in future."